Incline/Crystal Bay community planning process kicks into high gear next Thursday

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INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - Despite a federal lawsuit being filed this week against TRPA, Washoe County is moving forward with an update to the roadmap that would guide future development within the communities of Incline Village and Crystal Bay.

A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 21, at The Chateau to go over initial stages of work needed to update Washoe County's Tahoe Area Plan.

At the meeting, Washoe County planners Eva Krause and Eric Young, along with TRPA staff, will look for public feedback about signage, development height, blight regulations, town center location and various other elements involved with updating the plan, elements that must fall into parameters set by recent changes to TRPA's Lake Tahoe Regional Plan.

"We're looking at the whole Incline Village and Crystal Bay community," Krause said Wednesday. "We want to familiarize the community with the old plan and get an idea for what needs to be updated and what we want to keep."

Next Thursday's meeting is the first of many, Krause said, all aimed at gathering public feedback. Future meetings will be announced.

Lake Tahoe communities have been looking into updating their plans over the past several months in preparation for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to adopt sweeping updates to the Regional Plan, which will guide lakewide development for the next 20 years within the basin; the agency's governing board adopted updates last December.

On Monday, environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit against the changes. Despite the litigation, TRPA will continue to roll out elements of the plan unless an injunction against it is imposed by a judge, officials said earlier this week.

Similarly, work will continue for the Tahoe Area Plan, Krause said Wednesday.

"Even if the lawsuit ends up holding up (the Regional Plan) ... we still need to update our plan," she said.

Over the past few months, Krause and Young have worked with residents on the community development arm of the Incline Vision 2020 project on initial ideas for a modern Tahoe Area Plan, portions of which haven't been updated in nearly 20 years.

While 2020's work has been helpful, Krause made it clear Wednesday that the final plan will be a community-backed plan, and "not a 2020 Vision plan."

The county's goal is to have an updated plan approved before the end of the year.